From James Ozerman, Australia Does anyone remember the former Australian player and NSW/Tasmanian/Queensland player and Captain Dirk Wellham
Cricinfo25-Feb-2013James Ozerman, Australia
Does anyone remember the former Australian player and NSW/Tasmanian/Queensland player and Captain Dirk Wellham? When I was growing up in the 1980’s he was my cricketer. With some players they are who you want to be as players. To me, he was who I was; a quiet, bespectacled nondescript “outsider” sitting on the fringes of teams, waiting and being overshadowed by events or other players.Yeah, yeah yeah laugh all you want, I can hear you saying “What, are you kidding me? He was one of the worst players to ever represent Australia!”. It’s a comment echoed a lot apparently. I decided that I had to do my research on this to prove either he was or he wasn’t one of the worst ever to represent his country as he frequently appears on worst Australian teams lists compiled by fans just like myself. What I found may or may not surprise you.Through my research (i.e. reading of his book, old articles and internet sites such as wikipedia and Cricinfo) and in gathering statistics for this defense, he strikes me as somewhat of a controversial, enigmatic personality that didn’t always fit in with the hierarchy of the team, the board, the selectors, the fans or the media. By his own admission he wasn’t “gregarious or one of the boys”. That didn’t stop him being an above average State cricketer (he is only one of two batsmen in history to score a century on debut for state and country) and a first rate state captain (where he won two Sheffield Shields in a row including the double of the shield and the one-day competition) and is the only player in history to captain three different state sides. He played six Tests between 1981 and 1987. He seems to have unfairly taken some flak for some of his supposed actions which may have reflected negatively on his standing with the selectors and the board.On his Test debut in 1981 where he was approaching his century he was sent a message from the captain, Kim Hughes, who had seen the sky get dark, to take his time. He was tied down by Peter Parker and Ian Botham for 25 minutes before he could get to his century. He was subsequently dropped for the next Test that Australia played. He managed to play another three Tests in 1981-82 and again subsequently disappeared from the Test team.He didn’t exactly get an extended run throughout his career as the next time he was chosen was for the sixth and final test against England in 1985, a tour that seemed very unhappily divided because of the rebel tour to South Africa. Initially, he had signed onto the rebel tour and then pulled out thanks to Kerry Packer, which upset many, both on the inside, and the outside of the team, as well as the board. He and three others, Graeme Wood, Wayne Phillips and Murray Bennett who also were to have gone to South Africa, but like Wellham, pulled out at the last minute (Bennett months before). According to Wellham (in his book) the four were interrogated by the other members of the squad as to where their loyalties were, and later a unanimous vote was taken by the squad behind their backs that basically said that they weren’t wanted in the squad.He again disappeared from the Test team after the sixth test and stayed on the fringes of international cricket with intermittent appearances in the one day side until he was chosen in a dead rubber in the fifth Test against England at Sydney in 1987. He, according to reports was chosen to be Allan Border’s deputy by the selectors, but this was rejected unanimously by the board for their own reasons. It is also reported not only in his book, but in “History of Australian Cricket” (by Chris Harte) that he was the one who lead the team on the field to their only win in that series. Was AB threatened by Wellham? Possibly, if you want to look at it from the perspective that the team was underperforming, due to retirements, and the rebel tours and whilst AB’s captaincy was under serious pressure, Wellham was the most successful captain at that point in time.Personally I believe that Wellham would have made an excellent Australian captain. Despite him playing in most of the one-day matches the summer of 1986-87 and being a part of the winning fifth Test team, his international career was over after the tour of Sharjah in early 1987. It was in the same 1986-87 season when Allan Lamb took on Bruce Reid in ODI final over heroics and won by clobbering 18 of 5 balls to seal a famous, if not an improbable victory. Does anyone remember Wellham making 97 in that match? If you go to you can watch the demolition of Reid by Lamb. Try looking for Wellham’s innings (or Australia’s innings of the match) and it’s nowhere to be found. I all too well remember sitting in the Bradman stand and feeling slightly miffed when Bill Athey took a low catch to deny Wellham a deserved century. Such was the life of a ten-year-old watch his hero trudge off without gaining what was rightfully his.Granted cricket is about performance and his Test average is only 23.37 which is quite unremarkable compared to others who had longer to prove themselves, but given that his stop start Test career was stretched over six years I decide to compare how his average over his short six Test career stacks up against other (mostly) more established Australian Test cricketers averages (both current and former) in their first six Tests. The results are below:1. Mike Hussey 802. Adam Gilchrist 693. Allan Border 704. Mark Taylor 635. Michael Clarke 605. Mark Waugh 516. Dean Jones/Graham Yallop 467. Geoff Marsh 388. Ricky Ponting/Greg Ritchie 339. David Hookes 3210. Justin Langer 2611. Matthew Hayden 2512. Kim Hughes 2413. Dirk Wellham 2314. Mike Veletta 2115. David Boon 1816. Andrew Symonds 1718. Steve Waugh 14My conclusion, going by the statistics alone, he actually had a better average than Boon, Steve Waugh and Andrew Symonds after six Tests each and there was only 3 and 2 runs on average between himself and Hayden and Langer. Isn’t that a surprise? Statistically at that point in their Test careers they were pretty much on par. But then again cricket isn’t all about statistics, it’s just as much about characters and personalities.The impact that Wellham has had on Australian cricket is more than just his personal achievements but also how he influenced two of Australia’s future captains, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh. Both players have acknowledged that they gleaned insights and aspects of captaincy from his style of leadership. It is unfortunate Wellham just didn’t seem to fit into the Aussie larrakin/ocker kind of player that has become synonymous with those who have played for Australia over the past 30 years. He seemed to be a generation or two too late, a product of a bygone era when it was alright to be quiet or unassuming. Those of us who appreciate that can only ponder what could have been.
